Myrmecophyte

[1] In exchange for these resources, ants aid the myrmecophyte in pollination, seed dispersal, gathering of essential nutrients, and defense.

C. borneensis have been found to be completely dependent on its partner plant, not being able to survive without the provided nesting spaces and food bodies.

In laboratory tests, the worker ants did not survive away from the plants, and in their natural habitat they were never found anywhere else.

Facultative mutualisms most often occur in plants that have extrafloral nectaries but no other specialized structures for the ants.

[3] Facultative relationships can also develop between non-native plant and ant species, where co-evolution has not occurred.

Plants of the genus Acacia have some of the most widely recognized forms of domatia and offer some of the best examples of ant-plant obligate mutualism.

[7] Beltian bodies are found on the leaflet tips of Acacia plants and have relatively high protein content.

Most ant inhabitants of Cecropia plants harvest Müllerian bodies, as their primary food source.

They occur in many different plant species around the world and are most commonly associated with vegetative structures that normally do not have nectaries, such as leaves, stems, and twigs.

[3][9][10] The nectar thus provided feeds ants, which in turn protect these myrmecophytes from herbivorous activity.

A species of deciduous tree that displays extrafloral nectaries, Catalpa speciosa, shows a decreased loss of leaf tissue on branches protected by ants, and an increase in number of seeds produced.

However, the orchid Leporella fimbriata can only be pollinated by its winged male ant partner (Myrmecia urens).

[13] The tropical tree Cecropia peltata obtains 98% of its nitrogen from the waste deposited by its ant counterparts.

Any disturbance to the tree alerts ants, who then recruit more workers from inside the horn domatia.